Recently, I have been experiencing what many people call ‘superhero fatigue.’ Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness. Thor: Love and Thunder. Ms. Marvel. All projects that I generally think highly of. The problem is that all of those projects make one critical mistake. Doctor Strange sacrifices its second act on the altar of setting up future MCU projects. Thor doesn’t give its characters enough time to develop. Ms. Marvel abandons its interesting tone midway through the show. Even Moon Knight, a show I prefer to all of the aforementioned projects, has some of the most bland action sequences that have ever been done in the MCU, to the point that the show is more interesting when it doesn’t show the action.
Even non-Marvel blockbusters are superhero movies these days. The Fast and Furious franchise has the same flavor. John Wick has become the adult version of that flavor. Pixar. Stranger Things. Game of Thrones. Star Wars is… ugh. I will always be in the theater (on opening day) for every Marvel or Star Wars project. John Wick is awesome. I can’t wait for House of the Dragon. Here’s the problem: no part of me expects the tiniest amount of thematic complexity, and I fully expect the plots to be the most convoluted things put to film. While I can thoroughly enjoy a complex plot, without thematic depth a story will never keep me beyond that first viewing, even if I find the plot interesting.
Enter Daniels, the creative duo comprised of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Their first feature, Swiss Army Man (2016), was a super weird movie, that I liked, but I understand why some people might have disliked it. I don’t begrudge anyone for struggling to get into a movie about a guy stranded on an island messing around with the corpse of Daniel Radcliffe.
But, in 2022 Daniels released a movie that you may have heard of: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). In it, the two show just what a movie can be in 2022. Let’s start with the most basic filmmaking: the action in this movie pops in a way that no MMA focused action movie has since The Matrix (1999). The cinematography is thought out so well that every single shot is designed to elicit an emotion within the context of the story. The music is perfectly tuned. This film takes the bones of filmmaking, and pushes the envelope in every conceivable way.
However it’s the story that pushes it all over the edge for me. You see, all of the stuff previously mentioned what makes it a really fun movie. But having now watched it three times, the thing that brings me back is the beautiful tale it tells. This movie is not interested in telling a simple story. Rather it acknowledges how messy human life is, which is something that no Marvel movie would dare to do. I want to indict a movie that I really enjoyed now. But, Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness begs the question, “Are you happy?” A question that seems very innocuous, but one that Everything Everywhere All at Once would laugh in the face of. Everything Everywhere All at Once would rather ask a more human question.
Now, it would be easy for me to think that the pursuit of happiness is something for other people. The problem is that it’s not true. I pursue happiness as far as I can most of the time. The landing point of this movie is that, the pursuit of happiness is not as valuable as the pursuit of joy. The film ends with the main characters seeing just how wonderfully happy they could be, then having the opportunity to gain that happiness. The profound nature of the story is when they choose to be with each other, rather than to be happy. Happiness comes from material. Joy is a product of love though and this movie understands that distinction so well that my mom watched this movie, a movie with a fight scene involving sex toys, and said at the end, “That’s sweet.”
Sawyer Huelat 